Defect / Water Leak Remediation

South side of our client’s home, on the left there, and as you can see, there is no “eve” to help protect this wall that bears the brunt of the sun and the prevailing moisture laden weather patterns.

These are the two openings where the water was showing up. A decent overhang may have helped prevent this water-leak, providing a modicum of shade, minimizing the sun’s relentless baking…

…and the Willamette Valley’s rain-patterns from soaking our client’s cedar siding. Both of which can contribute to the leakage this home owner experienced by causing the siding to excessively expand and contract, opening up the joints between the adjoining courses of siding.

If you enlarge the photo by clicking on it, you may be able to make out the water-stains on the sill, the swollen MDF surround material, and the water that was dripping down upon the top of the vinyl sash the day we inspected this project.

On the day we returned to locate and correct the water leak, one of our technicians took this photo of a handyman’s classic attempts to stem the flood.

It’s unusual to find flashing products laid directly over a vinyl window, since vinyl windows have their own inherent flashing system, but it clearly didn’t help.

And upon removing a course of siding, we discovered why it did no good.

How the moisture-barrier came to be in this condition is somewhat of a mystery. We see it cut too short fairly frequently, but the “frayed” edges left us scratching our heads.

What wasn’t a mystery any longer, was how the water was getting in. Above, you can see the water-stains on the rough-opening materials (studs) after we removed the water-damaged MDF surround materials.

The good news in this particular case was that the leak wasn’t pervasive, it only leaked when the wind blew a certain direction, so there wasn’t any structural wall damage. We corrected the moisture-barrier to window relationship, and the costs for this project were relatively minimal.